Toileting / Marking Problems

House Training Your New Puppy

Without a doubt, toilet training a puppy has its challenges and can try your patience. You need to be observant and begin as soon as the puppy is home with you. Bark Busters will make sure the process is not stressful for you or your puppy!

When puppies are first born, they relieve themselves in their den but their mother is there to clean them. Therefore, there is no scent of urine or feces where the puppies eat, sleep and play. As they get slightly older, they learn to imitate the mother when she goes outside. This way the puppy becomes conditioned to never eliminate in their dens. If you are crate training, you will find that puppies will avoid toileting in their crate at all cost!

Knowing when your puppy is likely to relieve themselves by reading their body language is the key to success.There are mainly six times a day when a puppy should be taken outside for up to 20 minutes to toilet:

Before going to bed for the night

As soon as he wakes up

After a nap during the day

After eating

After exuberant play

After an outing

Have you ever taken your puppy outside for a walk only to find him relieving himself as soon as he gets back indoors? To avoid this, walk the puppy directly to the area you have designated him to toilet. Stand still and stay with him, so the puppy no longer shows interest in you. Do not sit down as this will only encourage the pup to jump on you and forget what he is out there for. Praise him if he performs. NEVER scold or rub his nose in any mistakes as this will teach your puppy to move out of sight or wait until you are not watching!

Your puppy does not possess human logic, but will begin to form good habits through structured routines. Positive reinforcement when he does the right thing in the right place is the best and quickest toilet training method.

Teaching Your Puppy To Go Outside

When training your puppy to go outside to relieve himself, LEAD him to where you want him to go, stay with him, praise him when he performs. Do NOT rush the puppy to relieve himself – this may just stress him out. Note that a male puppy sometimes takes longer to perform than a female. By enlisting the professional help of a Bark Busters behavior therapist, you will be provided with additional tips and techniques to accelerate the housebreaking process. It is not uncommon for Bark Busters’ clients to achieve a fully house-trained puppy within 2-3 weeks of the initial toilet training.

Solving Toileting Problems With Adult Dogs

Is your adult dog suddenly having accidents in the house when previously he was well trained? Toileting issues are not confined to puppies. Your dog may be suddenly “marking” its surroundings. This happens when your dog wants to create boundaries by using its scent, enabling him to feel safe and possibly protecting valuable food sources or pack members. On rare occasions there can be underlying medical or nutritional issues contributing to the problem. As with other behavioral issues it’s important to get to the root of the problem. It’s not uncommon for a dog whose owners recently moved or had a puppy to begin having issues. The root causes of inappropriate and latent onset of toileting issues with adult dogs can be many and varied. The good news is that these problems are almost always resolvable. The best thing to do is to consult a professional. Your Bark Busters dog trainer will provide expert advice and assistance to help you resolve the problem.